Monster World
by ThinkingMachineINTP
Summary: In a world where monsters run amok and humanity lies on the brink of collapse, Freak still lives with the Dursleys, his mind warped into something that struggles to grasp the idea of this "Harry" kid-but can he someday become the "Harry" he was always meant to be?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

As far as Freak could tell, the monsters appeared about six years, three weeks, two days,fourteen hours and six seconds ago. Or maybe that was just when the Dursleys added killing monsters to his chores list.

 _Nothing's changed._ Freak thought, dodging a slimy claw. _Nothing ever changes._

It was true, he mused, absently killing the creature. He still lived in a cupboard and did all the chores in the house. Uncle Vernon still yelled and cussed him out, throwing things whenever angry. Freak thought his uncle was just less cautious about the bruises and scrapes he left behind, but that could just be his imagination.

Aunt Petunia still complained and spied out of her window and forced him to clean everything. Freak suspected that she was trying to keep some "normal" in her life, that perfection would bring back... Whatever was before the monsters.

Dudley was the same, pushing him around and causing more scars than the monsters ever could or did. The newest one was straight across his face and covered the one scar Freak was actually fond of: a lightning shaped scar. The Dursleys said it was from the car crash that killed his parents, but Freak didn't believe them. The cars hadn't been operational since... Well, Freak wasn't sure. He thought they were mostly for decoration. No, his parents probably just became monsters and marked him in that fit of crazed insanity. Freak didn't hate them for it. If he was right then the scar was physical proof of their existence. Something the Dursleys couldn't take away. Until now.

Freak sighed, dodging a group of angry monsters. No one thought his scars weren't monster-related. They couldn't think of any other explanation. Nothing was done, nothing changed.

 _Except for groceries._ Freak reminded himself. The groceries ran out years ago in the nearby stores. Freak had to risk more and more, go further and further. But otherwise, no change.

Dudley's 11th birthday was coming up. That meant he needed a cake. So Freak had to go get ingredients and make a cake. He was halfway through a destroyed house when a loud shout echoed around. Freak dived behind a Broken roof and watched two men walk through the ruins loudly arguing.

"-telling you, Remus, he has to be around here!" the shorted man yelled, looking around, "Dumbledore must've-"

"That was years ago, Sirius," the other man replied tiredly, "When you were in prison and the world made some sense."

The shorter man- Sirius- muttered something before answering back, "Harry wouldn't be moved, Remus. He was sent there for protection. We've spent months figuring out where my godson is. He has to be around here."

The other man- Remus- sighed, "Padfoot... What if he's-"

Sirius- Padfoot?- the other man's glare stopped Remus in his tracks.

"He's not dead, Moony. I can tell. The bond... He's not dead, and not a monster either. The closest thing to morphing is his scar, and that is a stretch."

"You keep saying certain people can or can't be monsters," Remus said tiredly, "Yet you never explain that theory."

"The initial transformation only hit certain people," Sirius said, waving a hand dismissively behind his head as he turned back to the wreckage, "The worst ones. People who were monsters before the transformation."

"Then why-" Remus sounded almost offended, "I was in that town! Why-?"

Sirius sighed, "We've been telling you for years, Moony. You're not a monster. Monsters hurt others for no reason."

Remus still looked troubled, "But-"

Sirius cut him off, "We can argue about this later. Right now let's find Harry."

Freak waited until their footsteps faded, then snuck back to the Dursley's house.

Freak got two steps into the house before Uncle Vernon saw him. His beady eyes narrowed.

"Freak! Where have you been you lazy bastard! You're as worthless as your waste-of-space parents. You-"

About halfway through the spiel Freak zoned out the usual insults and made his way to the fridge. Halfway through unloading the groceries Dudley waddled in and started rummaging through the cupboards, complaining about the lack of his favorite cereal. Freak was putting away the last item- some eggs he found amazingly not spoiled- when Dudley knocked his over to look in the fridge. The eggs cracked as Freak hit the ground.

"There's nothing good in here!" Dudley said disgusted. He turned and kicked Freak, "Where'd you put the food?"

Freak ignored and dodged the kicks, picking up the remains of the eggs. He had cleaned up a few when Aunt Petunia walked in and started shrieking about the mess. Freak scrambled to try and clean up the entire mess quickly enough. Uncle Vernon walked in, his face turning red...

"That oughta teach you, Freak" Uncle Vernon grunted, putting his belt back on, "Now get back to your chores. The monsters still haven't been killed."

Freak tried not to move his back as he grabbed a knife. He was thinking hard, not a usual activity for him. 'Kill the monsters'. That was his chore. He's done it loads of times. Why were these monsters any different?

"Hurry up Freak!" Uncle Vernon yelled, breaking into Harry's thoughts, "Or what I did earlier will seem like nothing!" He raised his fist menacingly.

The words that man- Sirius- said came back to Freak, "Monsters hurt others for no reason."

"Freak!" Uncle Vernon yelled. Freak's grip on the knife tightened. Kill the monsters. He started his chore.

Harry was the person that Sirius man was looking for. That is what Freak remembered. Harry had a scar like he did. Harry also had no parents, like him. But Harry had people looking for him. Caring for him

Freak was freak for years, a survival tool because the Dursleys required it. They'd scream at the idea of Freak being anyone else. But now they were quiet. Freak looked over at the three bodies on the floor: they were going to continue being quiet. So the name wasn't necessary anymore.

This kid stood up, "I'm Harry now." And Harry walked out to find more groceries.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

It had been two years since Freak became Harry, and the Dursleys were as loud as ever.

Harry had no idea how: they never talked when he looked at them. They never even moved. He could hear them though. They taunted when he was too slow and a monster got him, screamed in rage when he broke a rule. Yelled when he ate more food than usual.

Everything changed, and yet nothing did. And Harry couldn't figure out why.

It scared him. Freak was the one with the Dursleys, Harry wasn't. The Dursleys hadn't really done anything since they stopped screaming in the living room. So why was Harry still trapped by them?

 _How was Harry different from Freak?_ He pondered as he looked for groceries. The distance he had to go now was just ridiculous. It took him days to get anywhere with food. He had finally made it to a new town, only to be distracted by screams from the direction he had come in. Still, he took off: screams of the dead usually meant good food.

The house he came to was very odd: it looked like the house had just been added onto over time. Oddly, there were bodies littered around the house, with a weird type of blood on their head. Was that hair? He'd never seen hair that color. He ran a hand over the head of the nearest body, just to be sure. It was a little girl, maybe a year younger than him. The body pulled something out of him: a spark. He yanked his hand back, frantically looking around. This place was wrong. There were no monsters, no bodies shifting and changing. He needed to-

A yell from inside pulled him forward. There was man with a stick, yelling at a kid huddled in a corner. The kid- boy, also with red hair- was hit with some red light and fell to the ground, screaming. A weird, different spark ran through Harry. The man was dead before he realized he moved.

The boy was still on the ground, now gasping instead of screaming. Harry took a step forward: the kid flinched back and put up an arm. He was afraid, Harry realized. Afraid of him. Harry didn't like that. He picked up a fork and threw it at the kid, needing to make that look stop. Others had looked at him like that, but it felt wrong when this kid did so.

There was a red light and the kid dropped to the floor, fork hitting the wall behind him. Harry stared, brain malfunctioning. What had he done? He stumbled forward, putting a hand over the kid's neck. Aunt Petunia was de- she left after too much blood came out of her neck. Was this kid...?

There was a weird beating in the kid's neck, like the one his cousin used to have, but slower. Harry let out a stuttering breath, the nervous energy lessening slightly. Then he picked up the kid- _how light was this kid? Did he ever ea_ t?- and walked out of the house. Halfway down the road, he put the kid down- _out of sight, don't let him get hurt-_ and pulled out a lighter. He couldn't let any of them turn into monsters.

* * *

It took about four hours before the kid started waking up. Whatever Harry did apparently wore off. Interesting.

The kid groaned, then shot up, breathing heavily. He looked around, obviously confused before his eyes landed on Harry.

"Who are you?" the kid asked, scooting back.

"Harry," Harry said, voice flat. The kid was going to make that face again, the one that got Harry to knock him out with light because he hated it so much-

"You saved me?" the kid asked, still hesitant. Harry nodded.

The kid relaxed and smiled, "I'm Ron," the kid- _Ron_ said, leaning forward, "Is my family okay? Did you-"

Harry interrupted him, "Family?"

"Yeah!" Ron said, "The people outside, or inside. They look like me, a bit..."

Ron kept talking as Harry processed what he said. Family? Harry never had one of those. The Dursleys had, but he was never a part of that.

He turned back to Ron, who was still talking, "And Charlie wanted to work with dragons. I think he was all about them before-"

"They're dead." Harry said without emotion.

Ron blinked, "What?"

"The people in your family. They're dead."

Ron stared for a minute, a look of devastation on his face, before shaking his head, "No."

Harry looked confused, "No?"

"No, we didn't survive this long for them to suddenly-" He broke off, shaking his head again. "You don't know them. They're probably still sleeping off whatever that guy did to them. They're fine."

Harry debated telling Ron that all of the people in and around the house as well as the house itself were now ash, but decided against it. Still, he couldn't let Ron go back.

"It is not safe to go back."

Ron stared at him, ears going red. "What? But I have to! That's my family, you-"

Harry growled, the tone too close to the Dursleys. Instantly, Ron shrank back, looking fearful again. Between the two, Harry preferred fear to anything like the Dursleys. But overall... he forced himself to calm down.

"It is not safe to go back."

He watched Ron take a breath and calm down, "Where is it safe to go then?" He asked, glancing and almost making eye contact with Harry.

Harry thought for a moment, then a place came to mind.

* * *

The shack Harry brought Ron to was old. It was also far away from where Ron had lived. Fortunately Ron knew how to hot wire a car- something his siblings taught him when they couldn't leave the house. Harry was surprised the things even moved.

There was a secret entrance to the shack, under some giant tree and near a bunch of rubble that might've once been a castle. Ron took one look at the place and sucked in a breath. Then he started talking.

"Okay, okay..." Ron muttered, looking around the shack, "Good security system out front, that should keep this place safe, but we should add a safe spot upstairs or a way to escape just in case. So we don't die-" Ron's voice cracked, and for a moment Harry thought he was going to lose it, but then he got himself back under control. He turned towards Harry. "Does that sound good?"

Harry didn't understand why Ron was asking him, but he nodded anyways. Ron beamed, making the same part of Harry that drove him to save Ron start purring.

Ron pointed towards the other room, "Okay, we can put a kitchen there..."

 _We?_ Harry thought, mind whirling _Who's we?_

" My bed can go away from the windows- which we need to put bars in- and in that corner there, and yours can go behind the doors so you can easily get in and out but you're a little protected if a monster slams the door open."

There is was again. Was Ron- did Ron think Harry was- or even wanted Harry-

"Does that work for you?" Ron asked, seeing the surprise on Harry's face. He turned red, "I know it's not the best strategy, but I thought... Would you rather have your bed somewhere else?"

"It is fine," Harry muttered, then pointed to the windows, hoping he read Ron right, "My weapons are going there."

Ron nodded, breathing a sigh of relief, "Weapons at the windows would be good. If a monster tries to get in then the weapons would fall on them. So, where should we store the extra food?"

 _Extra?_ Harry thought., _What was Ron talking about?_

But Harry didn't have time to ask. Ron was busy making plans, with Harry's input morphing them slightly. They worked long into the night.


End file.
